1. Well-Being and Social Capital: Welfare, Work and Community
Presented by:
John Helliwell
UBC and Bank of Canada
St John’s
November 16,2003

2. Subjective Well-Being Life Satisfaction From the WVS

3. Outline Employment and welfare: local, national and global
Lessons thus far: SSP worked, engagement trumps dollars
Social capital and well-being
Next steps: implement, experiment, broaden, monitor

4. Effects of Age on Well-Being
OECD above
Developing below

5. What’s Social Capital?
“..networks, together with shared norms, values, and understandings that facilitate co-operation within and among groups” (OECD 2001)
Created among and in:
Families
Community Groups and Churches
Neighbourhoods
Workplaces and Schools

6. Types of Social Capital
Bonding, among those with much in common
Bridging, connecting those with, at least initially, less in common
The two types tend to be found together, i.e. families, friends and community links go together.
But sometimes one type is used more if another is lacking

7. Engagement… Improves health Improves subjective well-being
Generate benefits for others

8. good workplaces help… Along with other types of social capital:
To improve measures of subjective well- being
To improve subjective measures of health
To reduce illness and death rates, including suicides

9. Implications for Welfare to Work
Cost/Benefit analysis should include well-being
Well-being effects of unemployment very large
Hence need to evaluate net employment effects
Monitor social capital and well-being, on jobs too
Include engagement and training in experiments
Examine differential impacts on groups at risk

10. Effects of Family Status on Subjective Well-Being

11. Income, Health, and Unemployment Effects on Well-being

12. Effects of Relative Income on Well-Being
OECD below
Developing above

13. Social Capital Individual Level Effects

14. Social Capital National Level Effects

15. Suicide, Life Satisfaction and Social Capital
Suicide suicide SWB suicide SWB suim suif
Membership [2.45] [2.80] [1.26] [2.15] [1.15] [1.46]
Trust [2.42] [4.01] [2.87] [4.95] [3.36] [1.16]
God [5.35] [5.01] [4.78] [3.74] [3.39] [6.88]
Divorce [5.37] [4.01] [5.20] [3.39] [5.48] [2.91]
Unemp rate [0.58] [3.23] [0.39] [2.86] [0.55] [0.02] Govt Quality [1.71] [10.31] [2.79] [12.81] [3.71] [0.34] Latitude [3.88] [2.24] [4.85] [0.10]
R-squared